SCEP and dairy-beef weighing tasks

With over 20,000 successful applications for the Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme and almost 14,000 dairy beef weighing scheme applications, it is important to emphasise the tasks that are required to be carried out in order to receive maximum payments in both these schemes.

Suckler Carbon Efficieny Programme (SCEP) criteria

In year one, it’s important to remember that you need to be a member of the Sustainable Beef and Lamb Assurance Scheme (SBLAS), Bord Bia’s quality assurance scheme, by October 16, 2023.

In this scheme, the majority of tasks work from an annual reference number. This is a prepopulated number of eligible animals entered on the online system at the time your application was submitted. It is important to familiarise yourself with your reference number in order to remain compliant with the scheme criteria.

• The requirement for breeding females in year one is to have 50% of your reference number four- or five-star genotyped cows by October 31, 2023. Applicants are also required to have 80% of their progeny born on the farm sired annually from a four- or five-star bull.
• The next annual task to complete this year is genotyping. This requires farmers to genotype 70% of their reference number and needs to be completed by November 30, 2023
• Participants need to weigh 80% of eligible animals born on the holding annually and these weights are required to be submitted to the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) by November 1, 2023. The calf and the dam need to be weighed the same day, and the calf must be at least 50 days old and unweaned at the time of weighing.
• The final task is to complete ICBF surveys. These capture various data around dam and calf traits including health, calf/dam quality, docility, etc. The annual deadline for completing these surveys is February 15.

Further terms and conditions for year one of the SCEP can be found on the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) website.

Dairy beef weighing scheme

Calves eligible for the dairy beef scheme consist of male calves sired from a dairy breed or all beef-sired calves born from a dairy cow. Funding remains at €20 per calf, similar to previous years; however, up to 50 calves can be weighed and be eligible for payments in 2023.

The criteria for an eligible calf for this scheme includes the following:

• The calf must have been born between July 1, 2022 and June 30, 2023.
• The calf needs to be at least 12 weeks of age at weighing time.
• The calf needs to be in your herd for at least 10 days before they are weighed.

Prior to weighing calves, your own scales or borrowed scales need to be pre-registered with the ICBF if not previously completed. To be deemed acceptable for payments, the weights of these calves need to be recorded and submitted to the ICBF before 5.30pm on November 1, 2023.

On some farms, routine dosing may be taking place at this time of year. This poses a perfect opportunity to get this weighing task complete well ahead of the deadline. Finally, you can make informed decisions in terms of nutrition plans or monitoring performance with these weighing results, so it is important to use this information wisely on your farm.

This article first appeared in the Teagasc Beef Advisory newsletter for August. Access the full newsletter here.